CRAIG Brown knew this World Cup was in trouble when Brazil pulled back every man behind the ball against mighty North Korea. And the former Scotland manager produced a statistic which summed up the tournament.

Brown, who has been summarising for Al Jazeera, said: "On average, there have been less than six shots on target per game - less than three for each team. That's nowhere near good enough. "Too many teams have been negative.

They all get as quickly behind the ball as possible when they lose it - even Brazil. "I couldn't believe it when they all got back against North Korea the other night. It was almost as if they were too scared against a team who shouldn't be able to live with them.

"Then there was Portugal against Ivory Coast. That was a game I covered and it was supposed to be brilliant. But it was horrible to watch. "There has been a real lack of creativity and my hope is that will come as the tournament progresses.

"I did expect a few games to throw up three or four goals but only Germany have done that. There has been an alarming lack of quality. "I think I've covered five matches and you can go 25 minutes without either team having a meaningful shot at goal. That's simply not good enough in a World Cup.

"It's almost as if every team is terrified of losing, rather than looking to win a football match through good play. When Scotland played Brazil at the opening game of France 1998 we were cautious but tried to score and did so through a John Collins penalty. "There's no way I'd ever have told the guys to go out and play for a 0-0. It seems that's the message given by a lot of managers and coaches."